Archive for February, 2010

Nokia and Intel have teamed up to create MeeGo, a new open source software platform for use on mobile devices. The new platform will be a combination of the best features from the two companies existing platforms and will not target just smartphones but also tablet PC’s, netbooks and even connected television devices.

This announcement comes shortly after Nokia announced that the Symbian platform was going open source and hot on the heals of Google and their newly popular Android mobile software platform, in a clear chase to regain some of their market share. Nokia says the plans for the Symbian platform have not changed but will be used on less expensive smartphones, with the more expensive devices running MeeGo.

These live checking cards could change the way that people budget their money and make it easier to eliminate debt. It shows you very clearly what you’re spending and what you owe. The concept was created by several designers at Yanko Design.

In addition to being a credit card, it would also track bank transactions through RFID. Amounts would be displayed on the card every time it is swiped, allowing you to have your account balance at your fingertips. The card uses E-Ink technology combined with RFID technology.

Michael Jackson’s death sure has done wonders for getting “This is it” either on or in gadgets. Here’s another.

This flash drive from Kingston will give you just 2 GB of memory, which is occupied by a pre-loaded copy of the movie “This is it”. It also comes with Windows Media Player 11. The Kingston drive will cost you $20 and is branded with the movie’s logo.

If you are a Ferrari fan, than designer Arthur Q. Reyes, Jr. has designed something that you may just love. This chair will make Ferrari Formula One fans very comfortable, whether you are watching the races or just relaxing.

It took three years to make and includes speakers in the headrest, subs for bass and another speaker on top. The foot rest is designed to look like the front of the car and can also hold your LCD TV. There’s even space for a gaming console or DVD player.

If you are editing videos, you’ll want something that helps you do it quickly and accurately. A real jog/shuttle wheel helps. Especially when it’s built into your keyboard. Of course whatever video editing software you are using has on screen interfaces that do the same things, but you still have to use a mouse and cursor to control them.

The GR100 keyboard adds just such a shuttle wheel so that you can turn to move quickly through a clip, and has an inner dial to locate the exact frame you are searching for. Some buttons around the dial allow shortcuts to other editing functions.

Back in Dirty Harry’s day Harry Calahan’s .44 Magnum seemed like the canon of handguns. Times have changed a lot since then. These days if you run into a Chinese gangster, they are likely packing a shotgun revolver like the one above.

Homemade handgun revolvers that use standard 12 gauge shotgun shells are becoming very popular with Taiwanese gang members. This one was confiscated from a 19 year old gang gun runner. That handle on the front isn’t just for looks, it’s necessary for the kind of kick this thing delivers.

We’d been hearing some murmurs about Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X10 mini, but it’s the X10 mini pro that’s a surprise. They are nearly identical except for launch colors. The mini ships in black, pearl white, lime, pink, red and silver, while the mini pro comes in just black and red flavors. There’s also a bit of a size difference, and the pro features a QWERTY keyboard.

They run Android 1.6 on a 600MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 and will ship in both North American and global 3G variants. Some other features include quad-band EDGE, WiFi, Bluetooth, and they come with a 2GB microSD card.

Add another pink gadget to those already unleashed upon the world. At least this one isn’t branded with a Hello Kitty face, or even the word Barbie. Apparently Pentax would like to remind you that you can use its custom color shop in honor of this special day for lovers, to create a pink K-x DSLR.

So the company has rolled one out to go with the red, white, black and navy blue versions. It will cost you about $770 and will match your pink handbag which has a tiny pink dog in it.

We don’t have any pics or even a release date, but Samsung’s Phil Newton has confirmed that the company will be releasing a Chrome OS netbook later this year, according to a report by Channel News in Australia. The laptop will be similar to the N210(pictured) and feature a 10.1-inch screen, 3G, WiFi, 2GB of RAM, 64GB of flash storage and a 12 hour battery life.

Rumor is that it will also run a 1.5GHz Snapdragon processor. The netbook is supposed to be introduced later this year.

Puppy Tweets is a new “toy” from Mattel. Don’t worry, it’s not the dog above whose lack of face is disturbing. It’s a device that attaches to your dog’s collar and monitor’s his or her physical activity all day long. When it detects new activity, or no activity at all, it will send out a tweet from your dog’s Twitter account about what the he/she is up.

This way you will know what your pooch is up to all day long. It’s available in pink or blue. The collar device runs on a wi-fi connection, and a USB receiver needs to be plugged in, and your computer turned on for the device to send out tweets.

The world’s largest production OLED TV will be headed to the states later this year, according to LG reps at the ISE-2010 LG Electronics show. LG is looking at mid-2010 for availability. How much can you expect to pay for it? How about $2,500? Hope you have some money in the bank.

Apparently the 15-inch EL9500 will be followed with 19 and 20 inch OLEDs. There’s even a 40-inch version that none of us can afford coming in 2012. Just as the Mayans predicted.

The HTC Legend should make an appearance at Mobile World Congress (MWC) next week. In the meantime Dutch carrier KPN has already listed it on its website, where it is available for purchase starting next month.

Looks like the Legend is running a 600Mhz processor and features an optical trackpad, a 3.2″ AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display, 5.0-megapixel camera with LED flash, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, GPS support and Android 2.1 running beneath the HTC Sense Android skin.

We’re not talking the same kind of Wii shortages that happened when the Wii was popular, but Sony is now cautioning PlayStation 3 buyers that supplies will be tight. Sony’s senior director of corporate communications, Patrick Seybold, says that they are working hard, but “demand is tremendously high for the PS3 and we expect tight inventory in the coming months.”

Console sales in general slowed down in January, but are expected to pick up. Let us know if you have any trouble finding a PS3. We haven’t heard of any problems yet.

Ever wonder how your Internet connection stacks up to people in your area? YouTube’s new Video Speed Dashboard will let you know just that, comparing your stats on an ISP, city, state, country-wide and global level, even giving you a 30-day profile of what your connection looks like.

You can also see the average results of users near you on other ISPs. This kind of thing isn’t new, but it gives everyone access to the info, which they really should have.